About the Charity
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Youth Development
Mission
First Tee Contra Costa positively impacts the lives of young people by providing educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote healthy choices through the game of golf.
Favorite Features
Sponsorship management, event registration, all-in-one donor tracking, and customer support.
Fundraising Wins
Increased annual fundraising ~500% in under two years.
Nearly quadrupled program enrollment, from 4,500 to 17,000 kids.
Grew gala revenue ~220% with Pledge It.
Consolidated golf tournament, gala, and donor database under one platform.
A Five-Alarm Fire at Every Event
When Brandon Garcelon joined First Tee Contra Costa as Executive Director in May 2024, the chapter had been running for more than 20 years, and its fundraising infrastructure looked like it. Two signature events anchored the calendar: a golf tournament and a winter gala. Everything else was patched together with disconnected tools, manual processes, and a donor database nobody had the bandwidth to maintain.
"We chased money all day, and we chased for names all day, and we chased auction items all day—who bought what, who paid for what, did they get it? It was really discombobulated. It was like a five-alarm fire every time we had an event." — Brandon Garcelon, Executive Director, First Tee Contra Costa
The golf tournament ran on Golf Status, which was functional but siloed, but its sponsor perks, such as exclusive golf travel experiences, didn't land with Bay Area donors who already had access to world-class courses at home. The donor database, Donor Snap, was outdated and too complex for a lean team to use consistently. Contact information wasn't being captured. Follow-up wasn't happening. The big donors might get a call. Everyone else didn't hear anything.
"It's $10,000 or $10. You've got to thank everybody, because you never know what a $10 donation turns into something bigger." — Brandon Garcelon, Executive Director, First Tee Contra Costa
Fundraising was almost entirely event-dependent, with no individual giving program and no way to connect the dots between events, donors, and dollars. The chapter was bringing in around $25,000 a year.
One Place for Every Donor, Every Dollar, Every Event
Brandon went looking for a platform that could handle events, capture donor information, and give him a clear picture of where revenue was coming from, without requiring a large team to operate or a stack of tools with separate fees.
"I want to be able to capture every email, every demographic piece of information. I want it all in one spot. I want to take all that information and use it to pump up our next event, pump up an annual giving plan, a monthly giving plan. I don't want to go from A to B to C to D just to get one thing done." — Brandon Garcelon, Executive Director, First Tee Contra Costa
He found Pledge It easier to set up than expected, and the customer support team faster than almost anyone else he worked with.
"[I] don't hesitate and think I need to figure this out. Just email, and they're on it like instantaneously. I feel like someone gets back to me within the hour. Sometimes it's even faster." — Brandon Garcelon, Executive Director, First Tee Contra Costa
With the February gala, First Tee ran sponsorships, tables, ticketing, and check-in all through Pledge It for the first time. After years of pencil-and-paper event management, having everything in one place changed how the day felt. And after the event, all the data stayed there, ready to feed into the next campaign rather than getting exported, lost, or siloed in a separate system.
The August golf tournament is now moving off Golf Status and onto Pledge It as well, bringing both signature events and the chapter's full donor record under one platform for the first time.
Their Biggest Event Yet Was Just the Beginning
The February gala grossed roughly $80,000, a 220% jump from the ~$25K the chapter had been raising annually. With the golf tournament on deck and individual giving starting to take shape, Brandon is projecting around $150,000 in total fundraising by end of year, a nearly 500% increase over where the chapter started.
"Moving from what we did in the past to Pledge It is bringing us into the 21st century." — Brandon Garcelon, Executive Director, First Tee Contra Costa
Enrollment has grown from 4,500 to 17,000 kids in the same two-year period, and First Tee is now focused on converting event attendees into ongoing donors, something that wasn't possible when every platform held a different piece of the picture.
"I can take a donor and turn them into an event attendee, or I can have an event attendee and turn them into an annual or monthly donor, just because everything's right there." — Brandon Garcelon, Executive Director, First Tee Contra Costa
He's also been making the case to peers. At a recent CEO seminar at PGA Tour headquarters, he found that roughly a quarter of the chapter directors in the room were already Pledge It customers.
